We're not in a hurry, we have plenty of time but my taxi-driver rushes at breakneck speed, apparently not caring at all about the traffic which was already at this early hour of the morning clogging up the narrow street we are riding through. A truck bears down on us from the opposite direction: just at the last moment both drivers swerve aside, avoiding an accident. A motorcycle passes us on the left; we are in India where they still drive on the left .... The first days we were struck dumb with fright but then we got used to cars speeding against us while our bus is passing a truck.

We slip now into a really blind alley because, without any warning signs, a large crane is mounted at the intersection. Already accepting the idea of having to go out and look for another taxi beyond the traffic jam, I watch with amazement the maneuvers of a dozen cars making a U-turn by mounting the sidewalk, slipping amid carts and bags of rice, leaning through a door, always open, of a ground floor kitchen, demanding space to a sitting-on-the-ground beggar and to the unfailing sacred cows, no, I beg your pardon, today is a matter of a buffalo couple.

Will this taxi really bring me to Calcutta airport - now called Kolkata? Suddenly we enter a six-lane thoroughfare with reassuring signs. I'm expecting this and in fact the taxi, completely broken down as it is, does a runner, burns a dozen red lights to stop unexpectedly at the thirteenth. Here the lights are to be the options and the street-stops decorations, not rules, at most a call to look out for children, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, dogs, buffalos and cows crossing preceded or followed by trucks and buses. I've seen camels but no elephants nor the famous tigers. 

Dear friends,

yes as you already guessed it happened in India where, formally and rigidly as a tourist, I spent 15 days having a beautiful experience of humanity, confusion, cultural and behavioral diversity. I could visit Puri, one of the amazing holy cities of Hinduism. Its main Jagannath Temple was closed for us: Hindus are becoming more and more reluctant to religious dialogue. But we reach Konark Temple, now closed to cult members but open to tourists: it's built like a carriage, the symbol of great carrier to perfection. We went to the Kali temple offering flowers and incense for our and our beloved happiness; welcomed at the subway station by an altar boy we were befriended to and entrusted as a guide who at the end enjoined us a "free gift for the poor", that for strangers it's already supposed to be 1,000 rupees, a lot at first sight but actually no more than 12 dollars. The first class ticket for 500 km was $42. There are three classes of trains in India: 1st class with reserved seat and air- conditioning, 2^nd class reserved seat but no air-conditioning,  and 3^rd class ticket on a first-come first-served basis. The short distance trains still now offer the amazing scene of people on the roof.

Great experience was also going round  Sharsuguda, guided by SVD missionaries: it allowed us to share cultural dances, agriculture work, their educational, social and humanitarian commitment with street children, HIV orphans, lepers (Yes, they still exist in India), pastoral work in parishes. But the more striking experience was the two days spent in Kolkata.

Waiting for our flight, with a friend we strolled around walking up and down the street and across the bridge of Ganga great river, travelling by subway, executive and popular buses full of people. We were also the object of an Indian gentleman's kindness who made us cross the town from north to south in his car, we visit his international tea shop and Tagore House. We saw the same misery that urged Mother Teresa to go out from her convent: naked children in the streets, adults washing themselves and their clothes on the street corners, trash everywhere, entire families living, eating, working and sleeping in sidewalks no wider than a table: animals crossing by, policemen shouting, cars honking all the time, people finding their way through all this confusion, but not one of Mother Teresa sisters. I saw them in their mother house handing out images of their founder: everything the same as when Mother Teresa started her work.

In our RUN (Religious at United Nations) monthly meeting, while sharing our impressions on Pope Francis' visit to the US, someone commented: The two Popes who did most to call for an address to the issue of poverty are John Paul II and Francis. For the first the icon was Mother Teresa, for the second, Dorothy Day.

Dorothy Day was an American journalist, living a bohemian lifestyle until she became Catholic and dedicated herself to social activities. She was imprisoned as a member of nonviolent Silent Sentinels; she collaborated to establish the Catholic Worker Movement that combines aid for the poor and homeless with nonviolent direct action on their behalf. She practiced civil disobedience, which led to others arrests. Pope Francis described her social activity as an example when he addressed the United States Congress.

Two icons, that represent charity and advocacy. Both, says Pope Benedict in his encyclical Deus Caritas est are necessary, but charity without advocacy conveying justice can be sterile, as the seventy empty cribs I saw in the Mother Teresa orphanage in Kolkata. There in the wall is written one of her words:  The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion because it is a war against the child... If I accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? In Dorothy Day perspective, I'd dare to say the contrary: If we allow people to kill each other on a daily basis, using weapons, hunger, injustice, how will we prevent a mother from killing even the fruit of her womb? Charity and advocacy address the same problem, but advocacy goes deeper addressing the causes that claim charity.

This urges me to share with you two last words: (1) my work and (2) a project.

1-. During the summer we worked restyling and translate to French and English my training on Land Grabbing. This is becoming an urgent topic, to the point that our NGO -VIVAT International- with special status at the United Nation choose it as a central issue of its Action Plan for the coming years, as did AEFJN our NGO present in Brussels for advocacy at the European Parliament.  From November 22-26 I was at a Conference in Nairobi (Kenya) on Land Grabbing in Africa, invited by SECAM and other international Catholic organizations.

2-. Working for Justice and Peace I do not want to forget the second dimension of our social commitment, charity. For this reason I'm trying to help a single mother with a little girl to build a little house: she's a professional and can get a loan from the bank, provide she has an entry mortgage. If you would like to be a blessing for these two persons, please send your support to my niece Ilaria Zacco who will transfer it to them Please say clearly FOR FR. JOHN PAUL PROJECT.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Peace on you from our Lord who is to come. Blessing and wishes for you and your beloved.

Newark, November 17, 2015

John Paul Pezzi, mccj

Here how to send you support:

Zacco Ilaria - Banca di Credito Cooperativo Agrobresciano soc. coop.

Sede di Ghedi - Piazza Roma 17 - 25016 Ghedi (Bs)

IBAN IT 41 O 08575 54570 000000004757 /

/SWIFT CODE: ICRA IT RR FZ0 (for transfer from out of Italy)